A Call for Assistance
by btvscharmedgirl
Summary: Rachel gets into trouble and the Berry men are unable to punish her the way she needs. SO the make a call for assistance. Contains spanking: Heed the warning.


AN: I do not own Glee

Warning: This story does contain spanking of a minor. If you don't like, then please don't read. Thank you.

A Call for Assistance:

Rachel was sitting on the couch, watching her fathers pace angrily around the room. Every few minutes they would stop and whisper something to each other, before resuming their pacing. She had never seen her fathers this upset before. Not even the time she had sent Sunshine to that inactive crack house, and she had gotten grounded for two months for that. She was fearful of what her father's were going to do about her suspension. Which she thought would be unfair, seeing as her perfect attendance was now ruined by the suspension, and she wasn't allowed to at Sectionals. Wasn't that punishment enough?

After a whole hour had passed, Rachel grew tired of watching her fathers pace and mutter to each other. She had long tiring day, hell a whole freaking week really. All she wanted was to go curl up under her thick comforter, and drown her sorrows in a big bowl of vegan ice cream and Funny Girl.

"Dad, Daddy, will you two please stop pacing, and talk to me," Rachel half-begged half-demanded.

Leroy stopped and glared at his daughter. "You have no right to be demanding anything from us right now Rachel."

"Well if you would just sit down and talk to me, then I wouldn't have to demand you too. Now would I?" Rachel retorted.

"Drop the attitude Rachel," Hiram said. "You are in enough trouble as it is."

"I'm getting that impression a lot, but I don't know why," Rachel said, making both of her fathers stare at her in shock.

"Rachel you know exactly why you are in trouble," Leroy said.

"Yeah, because I stuff the ballot box in Kurt's favor. Which I don't see what the big deal is anyways. It's not like I killed somebody. All I did was put a few extra votes in the ballot box, in a school election. Hardly bad enough to warrant a suspension from school and from competing at Sectionals."

Hiram and Leroy both stared at their daughter in complete shock. Neither could believe that she didn't see the seriousness of this situation. She had tried to cheat the political system. Sure it was only a school election, but if had been a real election, she would be in much more trouble than a simple suspension. Not only that, but she had almost let her friend take the fall for it.

Hiram sat down in his chair, and then asked, "What do you think would have been an appropriate punishment for cheating, or should I say committing fraud, because that is what you did."

"Dad, it was hardly fraudulent, and they say I'm dramatic," Rachel sassed.

"Rachel this is the last time we are going to tell you to drop the attitude," Leroy said. "Your father asked you a question, and quite frankly I am curious as to what you answer is as well."

"I don't know Daddy," Rachel said, with a little edge in her voice. "I get that I shouldn't have done that, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. A couple days of detention would have sufficed."

"Detention? Really?" Leroy scoffed. "Rachel you tried to rig an election. Did you honestly think that all those extra vote slips would go unnoticed?"

"I may have miss calculated my plan a little bit, but if I am being honest I wasn't really thinking that far ahead."

"Honey, that isn't like you," Hiram said. "Principle Figgins was being lenient when he only suspended you for a week. If you had done this in a real election you could be facing jail time, and the fact that you don't see the seriousness of what you did scares me."

"Because it wasn't that big of a deal. All I did was out a few extra slips into the ballot box with Kurt's name on it." Rachel said frustrated.

"Yes and what would have happened if Kurt had won the election regardless of those extra ballots. If somebody had found out, then he would have lost his presidency," Leroy said.

"But that's why I did it. Brittany was bribing everybody with candy and her naked chest. He wasn't going to win."

"You do not know that," Leroy sighed. "I am extremely disappointed in how little faith you seem to have in your friend."

"I do have faith in Kurt. If I didn't then I wouldn't have dropped out of the election," Rachel insisted. "I did this all for Kurt."

"And we get that you were just trying to help your friend, but it is how you went about doing that. The most troubling thing about this is that you did it without thought," Leroy said. "Rach, you have done some pretty bad things by not thinking before you act."

"I do one bad thing, and you act like I'm a horrible child," Rachel screeched.

"You are not a horrible child, and this is not the first thing you have done without thinking about the consequences. Must I remind you that you sent one of your classmates to a crack house," Hiram said.

"It was inactive," Rachel screamed in frustration.

"Stop yelling young lady. You are in enough trouble as it is," Leroy said.

"Only because the two of you are overreacting," Rachel said as calmly as she could.

"No Rachel. We are not overreacting," Hiram said with a hint of sadness in his voice. "You just aren't understanding the seriousness of your actions. I think that it would be a good idea for you to go o your room, and think about this while your daddy and I have a conversation."

"Fine," Rachel huffed, and angrily left the room. Although she wasn't mad about being sent to her room, she needed to keep up appearances. She didn't want to be having this conversation with them anyways, and she could finally watch her movie now.

She had just made it to the staircase when she heard her daddy Leroy holler, "And don't you think about turning on any electronically devises."

Well so much for watching Funny Girl.

Leroy made sure that Rachel had gone to her bedroom before collapsing back onto the loveseat next to his husband and then asked, "What are we going to do?"

Hiram face palmed, and groaned, "I don't know."

"Well one of us has to come up with something," Leroy said, and then face palmed too. "This is really serious. She doesn't even realize how much trouble she is in, nor the real consequences of what she did. Then to top it all off, our little angel has the attitude of a little devil, which is not her."

Hiram looked up from his hands and said, "Yes it is. She gets like this every time she get into the slightest bit of trouble."

"Hiram, I don't think grounding her is going to work this time," Leroy said sadly, and then looked at his husband. "She's going off to New York in less than a year, and she cannot be doing things like this. She doesn't understand that if she had done this out in the real world, she would be face jail time. Which is absolutely ridiculous, considering how smart our baby is."

"I think that might have been our problem Lee, we babied her too much. We saw her as our baby, and were too lenient when she got into trouble in the past. I know if I had sent a classmate to a crack house, my mother would have tanned my buttocks for sure."

"My parents too, but we didn't do that with Rachel. We have never done that with Rachel," Leroy said.

"Yes, and there were plenty of times that we should have taken that road. Like the time she broke Denise Westbrook's leg, so that she could have to lead in the Nutcracker," Hiram said.

"I agree, but that doesn't change why we don't do that. I cannot stand to hear our little girl cry, and I especially can't stand being the one to make her cry."

"So what are we going to do? Grounding her clearly won't work."

Leroy looked at Hiram pensively, and then in a crackly voice said, "Then one of us is going to have to do something that should have been done a long time ago."

"I can't," Hiram said firmly. "I cannot be the one to cause our daughter any pain, even though she really needs this."

"Well I can't do it either. I don't want to make her cry like that, and for Pete's sakes, I don't have the resolve to follow through with it."

"I know," Hiram agreed. "Neither one of us will get past one swat, before she convinces us to stop."

"So that brings us back to the question of the decade. What are we going to do?"

Leroy looked thoughtful for a moment, and then tentatively said, "I think that we should shelve that idea again. At least for now. I agree that this situation, like the crack house one, is serious. However I don't really want to spring something like this on Rachel unless it is a last resort. After all, she is usually a good kid. Just misguided sometimes."

"I agree with you. I really don't want to have to do that anyways, but how are we going to punish her?"

"Like we always do. She definitely grounded, no phone, ipod, ipad, computer except for school work. No TV, definitely no Barbara, and I think that we should have her research voting fraud, and alternative ways she could have helped Kurt more with his campaign."

"I think that is a great idea," Hiram said. "We should also have her write an essay on the repercussions of going to jail and having that conviction follow her around."

"Ooo, that's good too," Leroy agreed.

"How long should we give her to complete them?" Hiram asked.

"Um, let's see. It's Thursday, and since our lovely little diva is grounded she'll have plenty of time to complete them by Monday."

Let's hope that it teaches her a lesson," Hiram said forlornly.

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Four days later found Leroy and Hiram sitting in the men's office, discussing their daughter's uncharacteristically defiant and plainly bad behavior. It had started out with a simple cold shoulder treatment after she was told of her punishments. Then the silent treatment was accompanied with slamming of doors. Every single door that Rachel passed through was slammed shut, opened, and then slammed shut again. It was absolutely ridiculous, and un-Rachel like.

On Friday, Hiram and Leroy returned home to find Rachel watching Funny Girl, while playing a game on her laptop. Both of which were confiscated.

On Saturday, Rachel had her phone, and ipad re-confiscated. Apparently she had gone hunting for them while her fathers had been out earlier in the day.

On Sunday, Leroy went into the girl's room to wake her up only to find that Rachel wasn't there. Nearly three hours later, the girl returned home, and simply said that she had gone out to see her boyfriend Finn, before storming off to her bedroom.

All of that didn't come close to what the men had in their hands. Rachel's essays, or rather her rants. Instead of explain the consequences of voters fraud, Rachel had gone into a three page rant about how it was just a school election and not actual voter's fraud. Then she took it even further, and started ranting about how if more people were able to stuff a few ballot boxes then maybe there would be somebody in office that actually cared about the people and not big corporations.

For the essay in which she was supposed to explain the repercussions of going to jail, the girl simply wrote down that she was never going to jail because the election wasn't real, so there was no need for her to have that kind of information.

Rachel's odd behavior had been wearing on them, but it was the essays that really got to them. They knew that they would have to UN-shelve the last resort, and neither one of them were happy about it. While they had in the past discussed the possibility of spanking Rachel, they had never had to go through with it. This time was different though. When Rachel had broken Denise Westbrook's leg and sent Sunshine to the crack house, Rachel had understood what she had done was wrong. She had accepted the punishment and had thrown only a little tantrum. This time Rachel didn't understand what she had was wrong, and even worse, she didn't want to understand it.

They were baffled by her behavior in fact. Rachel was usually such a level headed kid, and she sure as hell was disrespectful to this extent. A little bit sure, but not this badly. They realized that there was more going on in their daughter's head then she was letting on. They just couldn't place it.

They had been sitting there for nearly an hour. All they had come up with was that neither of them could actually follow through with the punishment, and that they were going to have to find somebody who could do it for them.

"Well we could call one of our mothers. I'm sure one of them could do it for us," Leroy suggested.

"No. My parents are in Hawaii right, remember, and it'll be at least a day before your mother could get here. Beside I really don't want either of our parents judging us for not being able to discipline Rachel properly."

"Your right," Leroy conceded. "Umm, didn't Burt mention something about Carol having to punish Kurt a few months ago? Maybe we could get her to do it for us."

"Eh, that probably wouldn't be the best idea either," Hiram replied. "I don't think Rachel would forgive us for getting her boyfriend's mother to spank her."

"Damn it. I didn't think of that," Leroy groaned.

"What about your sister?" Hiram suggested.

"No. Patty broke her arm last week," Leroy said. "What about you sisters?"

"Stella left last week for Africa, Joan is too far away, and Ginny has too much to worry about as it is. I don't what to add this to it." Hiram sighed heavily, "There isn't anybody else that I would trust to do it.

Leroy bite his lip in apprehension. He had an idea but wasn't sure how well it would go over. "Maybe… um… Maybe we should give Shelby a call."

"Shelby?" Hiram blinked dumbfounded. "Do you really think that is such a good idea?"

"I don't know," Leroy sighed dejectedly. "She is Rachel's mother, and they have been getting along lately. She has shown that she only has Rachel's best interest at heart now, and she seems like she could handle this situation sufficiently. Plus we did agree that having Shelby in Rachel's life as her mom, is for the best. "

"Do you think she would be willing to do it, though?" Hiram asked. "She has made it really clear to Rachel that their relationship was to stay more like friends than mother and daughter."

"Maybe it's time to make Shelby get over whatever it is halting that progression," Leroy said, and then pulled his cell phone out of his pants pocket. "We can ask, and hope that she is willing to do it."

"Wait," Hiram said as he placed his left hand over Leroy right hand, which was clasping the cell phone. "You don't think that she will think that we are bad parents, do you?"

"No. Why? Do you think that we are bad parents?" Leroy asked wearily.

"I don't know," Hiram replied honestly.

Leroy smiled tenderly at his husband. "Honey we are great parents. Rachel is usually a very good child. She kind, polite, friendly, and overtly proper. She just does something's that she really shouldn't sometimes. And, yes, we should probably handle a few situations in the past with a little more… force, but that hasn't hindered her. I am sure that Shelby will understand."

Hiram was feeling a little more reassured.

Leroy kept the call to Shelby brief, only saying that he and Hiram needed to discuss something very important with her about Rachel. Shelby agreed to come over for dinner with them, once her sister had picked up Beth.

While Leroy was ordering their dinner, Hiram went up to check on Rachel, who he found laying on her bed doing her homework. He told her that diner would be arriving in half an hour, and then slipped back out of the room.

Rachel grinned at the doorway, listening closely as her father walked down the staircase. Once she was sure he had returned to the first floor, she slipped her ipod out from under the pillow she was laying with, and continue with her game of Temple Run. Happy that she hadn't been caught.

Shelby arrived at the Berry household just as the Chinese food was being delivered. Hiram ushered her into the living room while Leroy was putting the food into the dining room. She was extremely curious as to why the Berry's required her presence, but waited patiently for Leroy to return.

Leroy return just moments later, and flopped unceremoniously onto to the loveseat, and sighed heavily. "So I'm going to get right to it, that way we can save the chit-chat for when we are enjoying our meal." He breathed heavily, before sighing again. "Hiram and I have agreed upon a punishment for Rachel that we think is both needed, and long overdue. Now before we give you the wrong impression, we don't think that Rachel is a bad child, quite the opposite in fact. It's just, we have realized that there may have been a few incidents over the years that we have gone a little too easy on Rachel."

"Okay," Shelby said, unsurely. "I can understand that. Rachel is your only child, after all, but I'm not sure that I am understanding why you are explaining this to me."

Leroy and Hiram shared a look, and Hiram knew that it was his turn to step in. "Well you see, we have agreed that this infraction warrants a sore bottom, but Leroy and I are positive that neither one of us could go through with doing that."

Shelby stared at the men in utter disbelief. That could not possible be hinting at what she was thought. "You want me to spank Rachel?" She asked, just for clarification.

Both of the men nodded their head yes.

Shelby's jaw dropped visible open. They could not be serious. "You're kidding me, right?"

Both men shook their heads no.

"Why me?" Shelby asked. Her voice wavered a little, but she managed to ask the question without completely freaking out.

Hiram and Leroy shared a look, before Leroy spoke. "Well we will admit that you were not you first choice for this task, however we do feel that you are the right person for it. Despite you only recently coming back into Rachel's life, you are her mother, and we know that you have are making every effort to be a part of Rachel's life."

"Okay, you make two good points there, and I do agree with you on the punishment," Shelby started. "However, I don't want to confuse Rachel. I may be her mother, but you two are her parents. If I were to do this, it will open a new can of worms that I'm not sure any of us are ready to deal with."

"I think that the can of worms has been open for weeks already," Hiram said. "You and Rachel have been developing a good relationship. We knew when you came back into her life two years ago that we would have to share Rachel with you eventually. This is just pushing it a little faster."

"But I haven't been putting myself in a parental position with Rachel. In fact, I have made it very clear to her that while I am her mother, I am not her mom. That you two are her parents. I did that so that Rachel would be less confused, and so that I can be in her life without it getting complicated. Me punishing her would make things complicated. It will blur the lines that I have set into place."

"Okay, we hear you, but maybe you should have a parental role in Rachel's life," Hiram said, and then paused for a few seconds. "When we made you sign that contract, it was mainly out of fear. We were afraid that down the line you would want our baby back, and the courts would give her to you simply because of us being a gay couple."

"When you popped back into Rachel's life almost two years ago, Hiram and I had a long talk," Leroy said, and then grasped Hiram's hand. "We were no longer afraid of you taking her away from us, but we were fearful of how your presence in Rachel's life would affect our relationship with her. It was Rachel who made us realize that we were being ridiculous."

"How," Shelby quickly asked.

"She came back from your apartment the night you helped her make her Lady Gaga costume, and was practically glowing with excitement and happiness. Just one night with her and she was already swooning over having her mom back in her life, but when it was time for her to go to bed, she asked us to tuck in her in. Just like she does every night. That's when we realized that no matter what, we would still be her dads."

"Why are you telling me this?" Shelby asked, not fully understanding what the men were trying to get at.

"Because less than a week later, I had a confused, upset Rachel sitting in my lap, crying because you didn't want her," Leroy said, with a bit of anger laced in his voice. "She wasn't confused by your presence in her life, she was confused by the lack of connection she felt with you, and she was upset that you left before you even had a chance to build that connection. She wants you as her mom, not just her distant mother. She needs you, and after you left Hiram and I decided that if you wanted a more parental role in Rachel's life we would not fight you. It is what is best for Rachel."

"You weren't though, so we were happy to let your relationship develop naturally, but we need help here," Hiram said. "Neither one of us can go through with spanking her."

"And you think I can?" Shelby asked in disbelief.

"Well we were hoping," Leroy said sheepishly. "You seem to have a no nonsense policy with your students. An attitude that I believe goes well with this form of discipline."

"I don't know about this guys," Shelby said unsurely. "Sure I am more than capably of spanking her, but how will she react to me doing it."

"I think she will react like any other teenager about to get her bottom tanned," Hiram said.

Shelby looked at the men unsurely. They were really pushing her to do this. "Why now? I mean you have never spanked her before. Haven't you ever considered doing it before, and what makes this time so different then the past?"

"Well we have only really discussed it once or twice. We should have just sucked it up and done it, but we don't have the heart," Leroy said.

"Plus most of our punishments have worked in the past. We grounded her, taken some of her things away from her, or at the worst made her give up a lead," Hiram said. "This time is different because she doesn't see the seriousness of her actions. She thinks it wasn't a big deal, and she's acting out because of it. We can't have her doing things like this when she is in New York next year."

"Something that I'm sure you know all about," Leroy said, hoping that would hit it home for Shelby.

Shelby understood why they thought a spanking would be an appropriate punishment, and she even understood why he were pushing her to be the one to follow through with it. But she couldn't get the conversation she shared with William out of her head.

Hiram and Leroy saw the hesitancy still written on Shelby's face. When they had decide that they wouldn't fight Shelby if she ever wanted a more parental role in Rachel's life, both men had wondered why Shelby had decided that she had come to that conclusion.

Leroy figured that if they were going to get Shelby to agree to do this, they were going to have to figure out that question. "Shelby, why did you decided to… what did Rachel say? Oh yeah. Admire each other from afar?"

Shelby looked at the men in shock and bewilderment, wondering how on earth they had known to ask exactly what she was thinking about. "Um, well it was a bunch of things really. That story she told me about you getting her a cup of water when she was sad, made me realize that I had missed so many little moment with her. There was no connection with Rachel like I thought there would be, but I was willing to work on it. I knew that we couldn't just jump into things, but it was Rachel's glee coach Will who really made me see that it would be better off leaving Rachel alone. He thought that Rachel was too emotional to handle my presence in her life, and I realized that maybe he was right."

A resounding, "What," sounded through the small room from the door way. Rachel, (whom had grown bored with playing games on her ipod) decided to eaves drop on her parent's conversation. She had been surprised to hear her mother's voice mixing with her fathers, but what really shocked her was why her mother was there.

Her fathers had never even hinted at her getting a spanking in the past, but here her fathers were, trying to talk Shelby into doing it. At first she thought that there was no way Shelby would do it, but as the conversation went along, a sinking feeling grew in her stomach. She still didn't think that what she did was that big of a deal, but she realized that they didn't care about that. They thought it was a big deal, and her butt was going to be paying for it.

She had almost jumped out of her hiding place to protest several times, but it wasn't until Shelby explained why she had left, that made her move. She honestly couldn't believe her ears. Mr. Schuester had been the reason her mother had left. It was an irrational thought, after all her Shelby was her own person, but there was truth behind her thought. Mr. Schuester had been the one who had planted the seed of doubt in Shelby.

All three of Rachel's parents looked at the girl in shock. None of them had heard her come down the stairs, and they were all wondering how much she had heard.

"Rachel, honey, how long were you standing there?" Hiram asked.

Rachel blatantly ignored her father's question, and practically seethed, "Mr. Schuester had no right to talk about me or my life with you."

Shelby sat there in utter shock, at both her daughter's unusual anger, and her blatant disrespect. "Sweetie I am sure that Mr. Schuster was just trying to make sure that you were okay," She tried to reassure Rachel, who looked like she was ready to chew the man out. "Honey, your father asked you a question. Please answer him."

"No, I am not speaking to either of my fathers at the moment," Rachel said snidely.

Again, Shelby was shocked by her daughter's disrespect for her fathers, but only mildly. A part of her was growing angry with Rachel for it, as well. She decided to give Rachel the benefit of the doubt however. Rachel had clearly heard quite a bit of their conversation, so she could understand why the girl would be upset with them. They were trying to convince her to punish Rachel after all. Which she was starting to become less of an issue for her.

"Fine, if you won't tell them how long you were listening to us, then tell me," She said, in a voice that could be described only as her Coach Corcoran voice.

Rachel attitude softened, but only a little. "Since Dad said that you should take a more parental role in my life," She answered curtly.

"Thank you," Shelby said. "Now would you like to tell me why you were eaves dropping, and why you are being disrespectful to your fathers."

"Seeing as I was the topic of discussion, I believe that I have every right to know what is being said. Therefore my listening to said discussion was not eavesdropping. As for any disrespect I may be showing my fathers; well they deserve it."

Shelby held back the urge to swat Rachel, and as calmly as she could muster, asked, "And why do you feel that your fathers deserve you disrespecting them."

"Because they are disrespecting me, by asking you to punish me in such a barbaric way," Rachel said.

Shelby snorted. She tried to hold it in, but the look on her daughter's face, and the forceful way she spoke the words made her snort. "Honey, a spanking is not barbaric, and nothing gives you the right to disrespect your fathers. Now I would like it very much if you would apologize to them."

"No," Rachel said defiantly as she looked directly into her mother's eyes.

This time Shelby did not hold back her urge. In a split second, she was up off of her chair, grabbed Rachel's arm, and turn her away from her and her fathers. Two swats landed directly onto Rachel's dress covered bottom. She turned the girl back to face her. Shock was written on Rachel's face, and tears were welling in her eyes. "Do you want to rethink that previous answer?" Shelby questioned.

Rachel's features hardened, and she darkly answered, "No."

"Fine," Shelby said, making a decision in her mind. She let go of Rachel's arm and stood up straight. "I want you to go up to your room, and get you pajamas on, and be wait for me on you bed in fifteen minutes."

Rachel didn't move.

"Now Rachel," Shelby sharply, but her stubborn daughter refused to move. Shelby quickly turned Rachel to the side again, and landed two more swats to her bottom. "You are only making this harder on yourself. The longer it take for you to do as you are told, is the longer your spanking is going to continue."

A brief look of fear crossed Rachel's face, but she stood there unmoving.

Shelby was losing her patience with Rachel fast, but since it was the first time she was even scolding the girl, Shelby took pity on her. Normally she wouldn't have let it continue before she was pulled over her lap being spanked, regardless of who was in the room. Instead, she decided to give the girl a quite final warning.

She stepped closer to her petulant daughter, and whispered into her ear, "If I were you, I would go upstairs right now, before I decide not to wait, and bend you over my knee right here in front of your fathers. I don't think you want your fathers to see you getting your BARE butt spanked."

On the emphasized word, bare, Rachel looked directly into Shelby's eyes questioningly. She was trying to figure if Shelby was bluffing or not. Shelby saw this and gently said, "Go now please. Don't make this any harder on us then it needs to be. The quicker you go, the faster we can get this over with." The last thing she wanted was to actually give the girl a spanking in front of her fathers. Not only would it defeat the purpose of her being the one to do the spanking, but she was sure that Rachel would be mortified.

Rachel glance at her fathers to see how they were reacting to this. She got a sense of satisfaction when they saw that they both had tears welling in their eyes. She felt that if she had to suffer, so did they, but she had to agree with Shelby. She didn't want her fathers to see her bare bottom, and she was sure that Shelby was not bluffing about that fact. She huffed angrily, and dramatically turned, allowing her dress to flare up, and then diva stormed out of the room. Shelby listened as her daughter's mini tantrum continued up the steps, and into her bedroom. She flinched when she heard a door slam, and then allowed her hard façade to leak from her system. She nearly collapsed onto her chair, and looked at the men sitting before her.

She looked at the teary eyed men and asked, "Who was that girl?"

"That my dear woman was the little devil that replaces our daughter any time she gets into the slightest bit of trouble," Hiram said, nonchalantly.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Shelby asked. "She's like a completely different person. How have you not tanned her behind before?"

Both men just shrugged their shoulders.

"She's usually a good kid," Leroy said. "We just let her have her little fit, and eventually she gets over it and comes to apologize. We both have a very high patience level, when it comes to Rachel's dramatics. This time is a little worse than other times though. She has really been pushing it the last few days, which is why we decided that this needed to be done."

"What did you say to get her to go upstairs?" Hiram asked, curiously. He knew how stubborn his daughter was, and was sure that whatever was said, had to be good. Plus he was hoping that it was something he could use down the road if a situation ever arises again.

"I told her that if she didn't move, then I was going to bend her over my knee right now, and spank her bare bottom in front of you. Seems to have worked," Shelby said.

Okay, so he was never going to use that against Rachel.

"So this means you are going to do it?" Leroy asked, just for clarification.

"Yeah. If I had ever disrespected my father like that, my mother wouldn't have hesitated to spank me," Shelby said, and then let out a sigh. "Are you two okay? I'm sorry that you had to see that."

"It's okay Shelby," Hiram said. "We are fine. I guess it's only fair that we witness a little bit of it. I know we are asking a lot from you, but as I am sure you saw, we could barely keep from breaking down after a few swats."

"You're right. It is a lot to ask," Shelby said confidently. "But now that I actually saw a little bit of Rachel's attitude, I know that you are only asking it for a good reason. I just hope you two are ready for the change that is about to happen in our lives, because after I do this things will never be the same again. I won't be able to go back to how thing were."

Leroy smirked at Shelby in slight amusement. "Who are you trying to prepare? Us or yourself?"

"Both," Shelby said shortly. She took a deep breath, and then stood up. She glanced at the doorway her daughter has disappeared through a few minutes ago in apprehension. "You know. I have given a lot of spanking over the years. Some to my nieces, others to some of my students who were left in my charge, but none of them has prepared me for this."

"You can do this Shelby," Hiram said softly. "We have faith in you."

Shelby turned and looked at the men, and then cracked a fond smile. "That sounds oddly familiar. That sounds exactly what you whispered in my ear when I was giving birth to our baby girl."

"I feel that it is appropriate in this situation," Hiram said.

Shelby smiled a Hiram. She knew that he was just trying to ease her tension, and truthfully, it was working. She was scared to death of how Rachel was going to react once she got up there. She doubted that Rachel would just go over her lap without putting up a fight first, and she really didn't want to resort to drastic measures.

"Shelby," Leroy said, breaking Shelby from her mini freak out. "Thank you for doing this. I know we practically forced you to do it, but we do appreciate it all the same."

Shelby didn't respond with words, as she didn't trust her voice at that moment. Instead she gave the men a soft smile, accompanied with a slight nod of her head, and then made her way up the staircase. She paused when she reached Rachel's door, which had the girl's name surrounded by gold stars on it. Several deep breaths later, she knocked on the door once, and then opened the door.

Before Shelby had even walked through the door fully, Rachel had angrily snarked, "I didn't say you could enter."

Shelby walked into the room, and shut the door behind her. Her eyes immediately shot to the girl's bed to see if she had listened to what she had been told. Shelby shook her head in disappointment at the empty bed.

A pang of guilt and remorse washed over Shelby as she glance around the room in search of her missing daughter. The room was quant, but very Rachel. A poster of Wicked hung on the wall next to Rachel's desk, right next to a homemade poster. It was pictures of Rachel and the Glee club, during practices, school performances, competitions, and a few of them were of the group just lounging around. There were pictures of Rachel and her fathers placed everywhere, and surprisingly, there was one of Rachel and Shelby hugging. She wasn't sure how Rachel had gotten it, but it was from the day Shelby told Rachel that she wanted to put some distance between them.

She had missed out on some much of Rachel's life, and so much of that was because of her own stupidity.

Rachel stalked out of her bathroom angrily. In her mind, Shelby had no right to come into her room without permission, nor did she have any right to swat her. Who did she think she is? Her mother?

Rachel froze when she saw that Shelby was holding the picture of the two of them, and realized that her mother was standing in her bedroom for the very first time. She had literally been dreaming about this since she could remember, and now it had happened. Though the reason why Shelby was standing in her room still angered her, Rachel relished in the woman presence all the same.

"Brittany took that," Rachel said softly as she moved to stand next to the older woman. "She gave it to me just after Regionals. Apparently she had gotten a camera for her thirteenth birthday and had just learned how to use it, so she was taking pictures of everything."

"I didn't even see her there," Shelby said offhandedly.

"Neither did I," Rachel replied. "She's good at hiding and being sneaky, although she doesn't really mean to do it. Which makes her so good at it. She said that she heard singing and followed it to us. Which is another thing she is good at. "

"What? Following you?" Shelby interrupted

"No. She always seems to be there when I am singing privately," Rachel answered. "Anyways, she didn't want to disturb us so she hid behind some curtains, and snapped pictures of us. She made me a whole album of them, but that one she put into the frame."

"Can I see it?" Shelby asked, momentarily forgetting why she had come up there in the first place.

"Sure, let me get it," Rachel said, and then moved towards her bed. She got down on her knees, and reached underneath her bed. Once she had the album, she stood back up, and sat down on her bed. Instead of giving the book to Shelby when she sat down, Rachel moved closer to her mother and placed the book on both of their thighs.

The album was a bright pink square book, with a gold star pasted on in the center. Shelby ran her fingers over the star briefly before opening the book up. Every page of the book was filled with that day. That short five minute period frozen in time for Rachel to look at whenever she pleased. Except for the very last page of the book. There the scene changed to a day just a few weeks later.

The first picture was taken on the day of the Regionals competition. Rachel was sandwiched between her fathers in a giant hug. Rachel looked incredibly happy. No, more like loved.

The second is one that Shelby was a part of. This picture had to been taken the day fallowing Regionals. She was sitting in a rocking chair in the hospital, with Beth nestled safe in her arms.

Shelby didn't remember that picture being taken, nor did she remember seeing Brittany in the hospital that day.

"When I first saw that picture, I started crying. I didn't want to see a picture of you being happy with the daughter who was replacing me," Rachel said, gently. "I didn't understand at first why Brittany had included that picture, but then I found this…" Rachel pulled out a folded up piece of drawing paper from a secret flap on the back book cover, and handed it to Shelby.

Shelby unfolded the piece of paper, and read over the words that were written there. Words that were written in a rainbow of crayons. Shelby laughed at that, because she had been handed several notes from Brittany that were written in

Shelby read the words out loud, "One day these two pictures will become one." Shelby stared at the paper for a minute for looking to Rachel and asking, "What the hell does that mean."

"It took me a few months to figure it out, but I think she means that one day we will all be in the same photo." Rachel paused for a moment, and then tentatively said, "Like a family."

"Like a family," Shelby repeated dumbfounded.

"Yeah. She been asking me ever few week since your return. If the pictures are one now. I'm not sure if she's being metaphorical, or if she actually believe the picture will magically become one. It's hard to tell with Brittany sometimes."

"How could she possible have known this," Shelby asked, more to herself then to Rachel.

"I've learned to just accept whatever Brittany says. There are times when she is really lucid, and then there are times when half of what she says make no sense. Santana is the only one who can decipher her lingo, but from what I have learned is that she is very insightful."

"Insightful indeed," Shelby agreed, as she slipped the paper back into the book.

Rachel closed the book, and started nervously tracing the gold star with her finger. After a few moments of silence, Rachel softly asked, "Are you going to be my mom now?"

Shelby knew what Rachel was talking about. She wanted to know if the spanking was going to change things or not. "This will definitely change things between us. Hopefully for the good, but I'm not going to tell you that I will be your mom just because I'm going to punish you. There is a lot more involved in being a mom then just that."

"Could we please not do this?" Rachel pleaded. "I don't even see why my dads want you to do something so barbaric. It's like I did anything really bad. All I did was stuff a few extra votes into the ballot box."

"And nearly got you best friend into trouble for it, got suspended, eavesdropped on a private conversation, treated your fathers with no respect, as well as disobeying them and me several times," Shelby listed off using her fingers to check each off. She held up her hand and showed it to Rachel. "Would ya look at that. Your crimes has opened up my whole hand. Good thing this is the one I going to be swatting with."

"Shelby," Rachel whined, and then a look of confusion and anger crossed her features. "I don't understand. Why now. They've never even hinted at them punishing me like that. Why now?" The words were spoken in anger.

"Fear," Shelby said simply.

Rachel looked up at Shelby in confusion. The anger she had been feeling just seconds before slipped away briefly.

"From what your fathers have told me, which wasn't much, is that there had been times in the past that you should probably have been spanked. I am guessing that one of these times had something to do with this rumor I heard about you sending a girl to a crack house, because you were afraid of losing your place in Glee club."

Rachel blushed. She hadn't realized that Shelby knew about that.

"Apparently grounding has worked pretty well for you in the past," Shelby continued. "This time is different because in less than a year you will be in New York City, and you don't even see the seriousness of your actions."

"Because it wasn't a big deal," Rachel screeched and then practically threw herself off of the bed. "God, why are you guys trying to make this a bigger deal then it actually is. It's not like this is going to halt my future plans."

"It's not huh," Shelby said, preparing to burst her daughter's little bubble. "Did you ever stop and think that your suspension could affect your getting into collage. You cheated your friend's way into a position that he hadn't won. Schools don't look too fondly at that."

Rachel deflated for a brief second and then said, "Well then I hope the schools will look at it in a positive light."

Shelby felt the need to growl in frustration, but didn't allow it to come out. That would only make matters worse by showing Rachel that she was getting to Shelby. "Fine then look at it this way. By stuffing the ballot box, you committed Voter fraud. There was a real election happening there on Tuesday. If somebody had been caught doing what you did, they would be facing six to eighteen months in prison, and would walk around with a felony conviction on their record for the rest of their lives. Trust me when I say that producers like to deal with Stars that don't create legal drama. It create bad press for shows, and takes the focus away from where it should be."

That did it. Shelby could practically see the realization wash over Rachel.

"I'm sorry. I didn't see it like that," Rachel said.

"I know you didn't sweetheart," Shelby said and then grabbed Rachel's hand and pulled the girl closer to her. "Your dads are afraid that you will do something that you might regret when you leave them next year. That's why they called me, and after the little show you put on downstairs, I cannot believe that they waited this long to decide to do this. You were beyond disrespectful to your fathers, and to me."

"Okay, I guess I was a little disrespectful, but I was… No am angry with them, and you," Rachel said.

"Why?" Shelby asked, honestly wanting to know the answer.

Rachel was not expecting to be asked that question. "I um… I don't know."

Shelby sighed. It was just like a teenager to be angry with somebody without understanding why. "I can understand where your anger is coming from. You've hardly ever been in trouble, and there we were discussing your punishment, which seems a little extreme. To boot, I Haven't really taken on a parental role in your life, and the first time I do, it's going to be a punishment."

"Then why do it at all?" Rachel asked.

"Because this is what your fathers think is the best way to punish you this time, and after what I saw in the living room, I agree with them," Shelby said. She was starting to get a little upset with Rachel's obvious stall tactics. However, she knew that this situation had to be handled with kid gloves. Not only was this the first time that she was spanking Rachel, but this was going to be Rachel's very first spanking ever. Which she still could not believe. She had to give the Berry men props for their obvious patience. Rachel's butt never would have made it this far without a few good tanning's if she had been around.

"Alright sweetie," Shelby said as gently as she could. "Enough stalling. Let's get this over with."

"No," Rachel said, stomping her foot as she did.

With that stomp, all of the resistance Shelby felt slipped away. In that single act, she saw Rachel as a petulant little girl. Her petulant little girl. The block she had put up around her motherly instincts crumbled. Rachel barely had a second to realize her mistake before she found herself lying across her mother's lap, staring at her bedroom floor.

"No, let me up," she screamed, and starting thrashing around in attempt to get off her mother's lap.

Shelby tightened her grip around Rachel's waist, and calmly said, "Rachel, stop fighting. This is happening whether you like it or not. The faster you stop fighting, then the faster we get this over with." Rachel's thrashing seemed to increase, so Shelby pinned Rachel's legs between her legs and light rubbed her hand in circles on her back.

It took a few minutes for Rachel to settle down, and clam defeat. The second Rachel's body relaxed Shelby brought her right hand down onto Rachel's bottom. Rachel cry out and threw her hand back to cover her butt from the attack. Shelby pinned Rachel's hand behind her back.

Since it was Rachel's first spanking she decided to make this as quick and as easy as possible. She quickly landed ten hard swats on the girls covered bottom. Rachel was heavily crying by the tenth swat, and Shelby was wondering if she was just being overly dramatic or not.

She rubbed soothing circles on her daughter's bottom. Shelby pulled Rachel's pajama bottom down to her knees before Rachel even knew what had happened. Shelby was pleased to see that Rachel's cheeks were already a shade of pink. "Rachel, I want you to tell me everything that you have done wrong this week. Even the smallest infraction."

"No," Rachel yelled, and tried to leap off of her mother's lap again.

Shelby landed a hard swat onto Rachel's bare bottom. "You do not tell no. Now I will ask you again. What have you done wrong this week?" Rachel didn't say anything. "Fine. If you want to do this the hard way, that's fine."

She started landing swat after swat onto Rachel's butt cheeks, making Rachel scream out. She held out until Shelby landed the seventh swat. "Fine. I stuffed the ballot box."

Shelby stopped swatting. "Good," She said and then landed another swat. "Next one please."

"I got suspended." Another swat.

Rachel cried out again, and released a heavy sob. "I was going to let Kurt take the fall for it."

Shelby gave Rachel two swats for that on.

Rachel breathed heavily, "I've been taking the things my dads confiscated.

Shelby landed another swat.

Rachel's bottom felt like it was on fire. "Please, no more," she begged.

"You're doing great," Shelby said.

Rachel released a sob again. "I've been slamming doors and disrespecting my dads."

Shelby landed two hard swats. "Is that it?"

"I was rude to you downstairs," Rachel cried.

Another swat landed.

"That's it. Please no more."

"We're almost done, sweetie," Shelby said. "I want you to think about what could have happened if you didn't have dads who love you. About what will happen next year if you get into trouble like this, and don't have them to make sure you are staying on the right path." With that said, she wrapped her arm around Rachel's waist tighter and began reigning down quick hard swat. She counted to ten and then stopped.

She pulled Rachel's pants backs up and raised the girl off of her lap. Rachel was crying heavily, not only because her butt was on fire, but because of the emotions she was feeling. It was surreal. She had never been spanked before, and the first time it happens, it's her mother doing it. She didn't know what to think so she just stood there crying.

Shelby stood up and wrapped her arms around her daughter and pulled her close. Tears started leaking from her eyes too. She didn't like hearing Rachel cry, but at the same time it felt right. The moment felt the same as when she was with Beth. She felt like she was comforting her daughter in her arms.

They stood there for a while before Rachel pulled away. She wiped her eyes and the looked up at Shelby who was still crying. "Why are you crying," she asked; genuinely concerned.

"I love you, Rachel," Shelby said in response.

Rachel's heart burst with happiness. She had been waiting years to hear those words, and they felt just as amazing as she imagined they would.

After they cleaned themselves up, they went down to join the Berry men for dinner. Rachel took her pillow off of her bed to sit on, amusing all three of her parents. Despite her butt feeling like it was on fire, Rachel felt like it was the best night of her life. She had her mom being her mom, and she didn't have to sacrifice her fathers to have her. They were all enjoying a nice family meal. Life was good in her book.

There was just one down side to having her mother acting like her mother. There was no way she was going to get away anything anymore. What a bummer!


End file.
